I would look into a local photography club/group/class (4-H, community college, etc). That way you can learn how to use all the things your camera can do (ie not using auto-focus for shots to avoid the blurring, etc) and how to best use lighting, etc.

Sometimes talent needs to be developed and that takes education and taking a LOT of pictures.

Boy is that right. I took over 500 pictures the other day. I had 10 REALLY good ones and a handful of alright ones. Practice makes perfect. My problem is although I have a good eye for photography, I don't yet understand how to use my camera. I don't see what you were trying to capture in the photos, but I think you would probably benefit from a photography like me. 4H has a good one.

i think a person either has the talent for something, or doesnt. like me for instance, no matter how hard or how much i practice, i suck at cooking, i absolutely suck. you can get better at something if you do practice, but some ppl just dont have the touch for certain things.

Read, read, read! Firstly, all (recent) digital cameras should have a macro setting, which is designed for close up shots. Learn about your camera; Do you understand white balance, different effects it may have, auto vs. manual focus, all it's different modes?

Then photography in general... You need to learn about composition techniques. I would reccomend taking some classes using an SLR camera, film is best, or digital. You really learn about the technical aspects of photography, from choosing the right film speed, ISO, Aperture etc. You learn about different types of focus and depth of field. You will learn about composition techniques such as patterns, rule of thirds, repetition, framing, etc. Hard light and soft light, best times of day for either hard light or soft light, saturation...

Developing your own film and learning learning how to print your own photos is an amazing thing, and you really get an understanding of the elements that go into a good photo that you will never get with a simple POS camera.

I agree with above^^. You need more practice. And in my opinion, the first photo was the best one.

I don't count photography as my hobby but I phograph occasionally and have found some tips I've noticed good.

1)Remove obtrusive, unwanted objects if you can (eg redundant garden tools if you try to photograph flowers, "background" cars and bikes etc if you try to catch natural landscape). Those objects are often ugly, broke the 'magic' of the picture and steal your attention from the primary object.

2) Crop if you need to. Profit from photoshop programs. Now because it's a way easier to treat photo with photoshop program (or at least I think so) than try to find a perfect view angle with camera, remove every obtrusive object etc before photographing you can profit from those programs. My guideline with most of pictures is; make it so simple than possible. If there are 'pieces' of something close the margin of the photo, it's better to crop them out, it makes it more simple. An extra tip especially for all kind of vertical and horizontal objects (like trees): don't crop them so that you 'split' them. Splitting them makes whole the photo look somehow incoherent and wrong cropped. Here's a little example, not so good but hope you'll catch it. So let's think you try to catch that flower bed in the 'photo':E1.jpg

Looks a little more simple and calmer, isn't it? Personally I'd perhaps photoshop those birds out. The object needn't to be always in the middle of the photo, use your creativity and find more angles!E2.jpg

3)Blur, sharpen if you need to. Especially if you have one, clear object that you want to highlight. You can bring the primary object more out if you sharpen it/blur the background a bit. In most of photoshop programs there's a tool which allow you to choose and 'pick' areas that you want to manipulate. Use it. Don't still blur/sharpen too much, it doesn't look good.

4) Check color/contrast. You can set them with most of photoshop programs too.
These are just few basic guidelines I obey. It isn't the only and one right way, of course there's all kind of other ways to photograph too. Depends a lot what kind of photos you want to take.

I also agree with it that you could familiarize yourself with the settings of your camera more.

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